Features

Data centers: Where’s the beef?

Data centers are growing exponentially all around the country. One is being discussed in Washington County, Ohio. There is no data center being planned in Wood County, W.Va., but the state government is doing everything it can to attract data centers to the Mountain State, and four sites are under consideration. At the governor’s urging, the WV state legislature passed HB 2014, which prohibits local jurisdiction over any data centers; the state will be diverting taxes from these sites from local bodies. In Washington County there is a data center under consideration in the Waterford ...

Matthews left a good impression on Marietta

As a young photojournalist in the 1980s, I would frequently see firefighter Joe Matthews at the different fires and accidents around town. Joe was always friendly and helpful; he understood that we had a job to do and understood when I might have gotten a little closer than I should have to a ...

Laws of the land

As we prepare for America 250, the celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, we begin thinking of the story of America, “the great experiment.” Our thoughts go to the next important document, the U. S. Constitution signed in 1787. The framers designed something that had never happened before, a unique democratic system giving power to “we the people,” making three co-equal branches of government, and setting up checks and balances to encourage cooperation and compromise. Over the past year, The Marietta Times has run a column series on the U. ...

Impressions of Turkey

The Shale Crescent USA Team is part of a U.S. Commercial Services Roadshow to Turkey. Lynnda and I, along with SCUSA President Nathan Lord, arrived in Istanbul last Sunday. We were in three Turkish cities for Roadshow events, meeting with companies interested in investing in the USA. Most Turks guess the actual number of people in Istanbul, the nation’s largest city, to be in excess of 20 million people and still growing. Homes and businesses take up almost every available space. Not much green space. There are buildings as far as the eye can see. Not high rise steel like in Tokyo ...

Coming at you

Leaders change the world through action

When the Soviet Union overran and annexed Latvia back in 1940, the American Charge d’Affaires ad interim, John Wiley, worried that Red Cross supplies shipped to Latvia for humanitarian reasons would be seized by the Soviets. Wiley asked permission from the State Department to fly the United States flag above the Red Cross warehouse to deter Soviet interference. The State Department responded, “No precedent exists for such action.” Wiley promptly raised the American flag over the warehouse and cabled back, “As of this date, I have established precedent.” Good for Wiley. He saw ...